


The King and the Fódlan Lady Cover

by pelusoart (chellmibell)



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Artistic Risque, Cover Art, F/M, Illustrations, Watercolors, harlequin romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:47:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23668615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chellmibell/pseuds/pelusoart
Summary: The official cover art for "The King and the Fódlan Lady" by Anam_Writes with additional detail shots and artist commentary.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 5
Kudos: 22





	The King and the Fódlan Lady Cover

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anam_Writes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anam_Writes/gifts).



> Is it a little redundant to post this here when it's already up on both tumblr and twitter? perhaps. did I also really want an extra chance to gush about all the lovely things I was able to do thanks to Anam's brilliant prose? definitely.

"Be soft for me, my Lady," the King orders.

~***~

Final Cover with text

Original Work before edits

The cover is a direct pose reference to the Spanish cover for the harlequin novel "Man of My Dreams" by Johanna Lindsey

**Detail 1: King Khalid III Al-Kir**

One of my personal goals with this piece was to get across just how unapologetically in love Claude is with his wife. I redrew his expression the most to achieve this, and also to get his hair the perfect ratio of composed and disheveled.

**Detail 2: Queen "Lady" Byleth Eisner von Riegan**

Compared to her husband, Byleth was easier to work with, I knew from the start I wanted a steadying gasp. The hard part was making sure the gasp wasn’t uh... implying more. I think I managed it?

**Detail 3: "Almyran" Embroidered Pants & Pillows**

This was actually done after Byleth’s nightgown. Almyra is pretty clearly based upon ancient Persian culture, which is heavily detailed, though I defaulted back to Italian lace designs for what I made. Since I was already using Byleth’s safe word in her outfit, putting Claude’s in his was a no-brainer. Commentators on discord had a field day with it given his safe word, the death cap (an exceedingly poisonous mushroom), looks extremely phallic. The pillows were ultimately an afterthought because they felt too plain in comparison to the rest of the painting. 

**Detail 4: "Fodlan" Lace Embroidery**

When hashing out the details of the piece with Anam, I made a personal request to put lace on Byleth’s outfit. It’s a weakness of mine and the chance to hide her safeword in the image was exceedingly tempting. Finding reference was a pain though, because most lace designs with lilies in them are very religious. In a hilarious reversal, it's also the most risque part of the piece as I just automatically added in the pink of her nipples in without even thinking. 

**Detail 5: The ONE Specification, Chest Hair**

Other than the pose itself, the one thing that was asked of the piece was for Claude to have chest hair, which Fabio never has for some reason. I researched chest hair grooming to make sure it looked both well groomed and natural. I have weird standards. Intsys is made of cowards for not giving the boys chest hair on their models. 


End file.
